Piece by piece (SwanQueen) (OUAT)
by sstorybrookee
Summary: What are the odds of a stranger you encounter in a random bar to appear in your life again? That's what 20-year-old Emma must have thought when the hot woman she shared a drink with reappears in her life and turns out to be Regina Mills... her teacher.
1. 01 - I dare you

"I still think this is not a good idea."

A smell of alcohol and sweat filled the air of that noisy and crowded bar. Two young girls, one completely different from the other, were sitting in one of the small tables, one that gave them a pretty good vision of the local and allowed every customer that walked in to land their eyes on them.

"It's just a drink, Belle, relax!" said one of them, handing a shot glass to the petite brunette.

"Plus, it's our last night of freedom before hell, also known as class, starts again tomorrow." A taller and bubbly brunette joined them, landing another round of alcohol on their table.

Belle French, Ruby Lucas and Emma Swan had met each other on their first day of university, when none of them could manage to find their classroom and the three of them ended up being late and sitting in the back of said class. Ever since that moment, they became inseparable, and it had already been three years from that.

"Ugh, okay, but I'm leaving at 12 tops" Belle finally agreed, accepting one of the glasses and drinking the liquid content.

"Buzzkill." Ruby whispered, her party spirit crushed by her friend's responsibility.

The girls started then chatting about their summer and recalling all the crazy plans they managed to make true, like their long awaited road trip in which they had discovered many small yet charming towns they didn't even know existed. Once their trip ended, it was time to come back to their city, Storybrooke, located in Maine; the three of them started then looking for a nice flat to live in when the year started. They finally found it, and they had fallen in love with it the moment they first stepped in it.

But, of course, not everything was parties and fun, and so the girls got themselves a job to be able to make some money that would be really useful to pay the rent and university fees. Ruby decided to become a waitress in one of the local restaurants owned by a nice lady everyone referred to as "Granny". Belle, following her passion for literature accepted a job at the public library, where she was able to read for hours without being disturbed. Emma, on the other hand, ended up working at the grocery store, where she didn't get much free time.

Emma's job was one of the reasons she hadn't gone out with her friends as much as she intended to, and that resulted in her being the only one not finding a summertime romance, and she didn't mind putting their thoughts out loud, like she was doing that night.

"And that's why it's not fair that I am alone." She concluded her argument while she grabbed some of her long blond hair and paced it behind her ear. "I don't know, maybe it's some kind of karma for being such a hot an amazing person." She added, a huge grin forming in her face.

"Oh, that's not how karma works, honey." Belle laughed at her, taking another sip of her blue drink.

"Plus, you're not even that hot and amazing, so shut up." Ruby added rolling her eyes.

"Oh, but I am. Have you seen this?" asked the blond girl pointing at her body with both her hands, not being ready to give up.

"Confident, aren't we?" the tall brunette looked at her friend with a raised eyebrow. "Okay, okay." She made a pause, trying to make her next words sound dramatic. "I dare you to get the next girl that comes through the door to buy you a drink."

"Bonus points if you get her number." Belle added, joining in the bet.

"Okay, you got it." Emma agreed after a moment of thinking, trusting she could do it without any kind of problem.

The three of them turned to the door, keeping their eyes on it for several minutes before it opened. Emma then found herself holding her breath at the vision of a pair of long legs that ended up in a couple of black high heels that confidently made their way to the counter. Emma had been sure she could win that best but, in that moment, she started to doubt about her abilities. She was expecting some decent looking girl to walk through the door, but that woman's beauty was a whole new level.

"Crap." She whispered while finishing her drink and finding the courage to approach her.

 _Put it together, Swan, you have to win this._ She repeated those words in her head again and again while giving their friends a thumbs up and a weak smile. She then took a deep breath and quietly sat in the stool next to the woman's.

"A gorgeous girl on her own is either celebrating or drowning her pains in alcohol. So, which one is it?" as soon as the words left her mouth, Emma internally slapped herself; she was never going to win the bet with those lame moves.

"Smooth." She replied before taking a sip of her scotch, not even taking a look at Emma. The blond thought her voice sounded sad, almost broken, yet it managed to make the girl shiver, as if electricity decided to circulate through her veins instead of blood.

"Not my best move, I must agree." Emma laughed, thinking that would help her in her strategy, but all she won was a cold stare of a couple of deep brown eyes, probably the most beautiful ones she had ever seen.

"Are you done flirting?" the woman asked raising her left eyebrow. "Because I'm going through some problems right now and I would like to drink alone." This time her voice was as cold as her look.

"Okay, I just thought you would like some company. No one really enjoys drinking alone, right?" Emma showed her best smile before taking the drink the bartender just put down in front of her and getting up, ready to come back to her friends.

"Wait." A voice behind her made her freeze, thinking maybe she had imagined it. "Sit down." This time she was sure, the gorgeous and mysterious woman had invited her to sit down with her.

 _Suck it, Ruby._


	2. 02 - Rise and shine

When the alarm went off at 6:45am Emma knew that day was not going to be fun at all. She slowly turned the annoying beeping off without even opening her eyes, turning around between her light purple bedsheets and trying to fall asleep once again. She had almost made it when a loud knock at her door made her jump.

"Morning, morning, rise and shine Swan!" the door was opened to reveal a way too happy Belle, still on her pyjamas that ran inside the room to sit on Emma's bed.

"How can you even be awake?" Emma asked, regretting it a second later since she felt a sharp pain in her head, like someone had just hit her with a hammer. "Oh, shit." She whispered.

"Well, I didn't drink as much as you girls." Belle smiled before taking the bedsheets to pull them from Emma's asleep and cold body.

"No…" the blonde one grunted.

"I'm giving you five minutes to get up or I'm coming back to sing _Mamma Mia_ at the top of my lungs." The short girl added before showing herself to the door. "The aspirins are in the second drawer of the kitchen counter." She said before fully leaving.

Emma heard her run upstairs and knock on Ruby's door, not getting a response. She waited until a loud scream let her know the blue eyed brunette had decided to tickle Ruby until she got on her feet. Belle knew her friends too well, she knew she had signed up to be their "mother" on the flat and she did not care, she loved them too much to be mad at their laziness and screams in the morning.

"Why is morning a thing?" Emma sighed and finally got up, grabbing some random clothes of her closet. _Looks like a monkey chose your outfit,_ is what Ruby always told her. The tall brunette was like a fashion goddess, as Emma called her sometimes, so she already knew she was going to get one of her comments as soon as she took a look at herself in the mirror.

She was wearing her old, comfortable, favourite jeans, her black converse, a stripped black and white t-shirt and her red leather jacket, which she made sure to wear as much as possible since it gave her confidence and, according to Belle, it made her look so badass. _Basic,_ she could hear her friend's voice in her head as she smiled and grabbed her bag to exit the room.

"Guess you didn't want to hear my angelical voice this morning." Belle announced coming downstairs already dressed and dragging a sleepy brunette with her.

"You know I love your voice, but I didn't feel like getting my ears broken today, thank you very much." Emma played along, knowing her friend wasn't as bad of a singer as she wanted everyone to believe.

"I made you both pancakes, so get your asses to the kitchen." Belle said after laughing at Emma's response.

Ruby and Emma sat at the kitchen table while Belle was placing two pancakes on each plate and reached for some coffee mugs, claiming she didn't need any help and that she didn't want the kitchen to set on fire. Emma looked at her friend, who had decided to rest her head on the table, her eyes closed.

"So, Rubs, I think you owe me dinner at a fancy restaurant." The brunette opened her eyes and looked at her confused.

"What? Why?" Emma laughed at her before answering.

"The hot woman last night, I won the bet! She bought me two drinks and we talked for more than one hour."

"You didn't get her number, though" Belle said placing the plates in front of the hungry girls.

"That was in addition to the actual bet, so I won anyways." Emma quickly replied before Ruby got the chance to argue with her.

"I didn't tell you I'd buy you dinner." Ruby complained before taking a bite of her pancake, grabbing it with her hands and getting a warning look from the short girl who pointed at a fork with her right hand. "Sorry." She whispered.

"Exactly, we didn't agree what my reward was, so I choose a fancy dinner." Emma said taking a bite of her own pancake covered in chocolate syrup.

"Well, I think that woman was reward enough, I mean, did you see her?" Ruby asked, trying to get away from that dinner, knowing her friend would not hesitate in ordering the most expensive dish in the menu so she learnt not to mess with her again.

"Oh hell yes, I did. She was gorgeous and breath-taking, Rubes, how could I ever forget her?" Emma replied, getting lost in her memories. She was not aware of it yet, but that woman had hit her hard; her voice was stuck in the blonde's mind, her words repeating over and over again in her head.

They had talked about random topics such as the city or their favourite movies and passion for literature. Emma had tried to learn her name or the kind of problems that could have lead the beautiful women to end up drinking alone on a Sunday's night, but every time the conversation became too personal, the black haired lady would just give her a big hypnotizing smile and change the topic of conversation into something more general or random. The night had finished with Emma knowing nothing about that woman, other than the fact that she made her feel all her problems had disappeared for a moment, like everything was perfect by her side. Emma only knew one thing for sure, somewhere deep inside her, a quiet voice told her she needed to see that woman again, she needed to get lost in those deep brown eyes once more.

"Emma!" Ruby yelled at her, waving her hand from right to left two centimetres away from the blonde's nose. Emma winked, shook her head and looked at her friend. "Jeez, you scared me, thought we lost you there for a moment." She said while getting up from the table and taking her now empty plate to the kitchen.

"Sorry, I'm still half asleep." Emma said with a weak smile.

"I was saying we could order some pizza and let you choose the film tonight, that's your reward." Ruby said while the blondie ate her last bite of pancake and got up from the table.

"Seems fine to me."

"Girls, we're seriously late." Belle rolled her eyes while tapping her right feet on the ground. "Can you hurry up?"


	3. 03 - Back to class

Emma took a look around her. The three girls had managed to arrive on time, slowing their pace once they entered the campus. Emma smiled, remembering all the doubts she had three years ago, when she decided to attend university in Storybrooke. _There are amazing universities here in Boston, honey,_ her mother said, trying to convince her not to move all the way to Maine. But it was too late, Emma had fallen in love with the small city and the university itself, a big campus full of trees and ducks that allowed her to breathe, instead of some buildings in the middle of a noisy and crowded city.

 _It still smells like forest,_ she thought, smiling by the fact that the same thought had come to her mind the first time she walked in the campus.

Emma loved the first day back to class, the paths that lead to the several buildings were filled with students: old friends greeting after the holidays, the freshmen wandering and trying to befriend someone, knowing that was the most important day of their next four years… somehow, it felt like coming back home.

"Look at that, the Powerpuff Girls are back." Emma turned around to the voice, owned by a tall brunette with soft features and a big smile that was walking toward them.

"Ivy!" Ruby screamed, running into the girl's arms.

The three had met Ivy on their second year of university, when they had to team up for a class project; she happened to be sitting next to Belle, and they had talked to her a couple of times before, thinking she was actually nice. Ever since, the girls considered her a really close friend, and even invited her for some sleepovers and improvised lunches. It felt good running into her that morning, especially since they hadn't had the chance to see her much on holidays due to Ivy's long trip to London, organised by her very rich yet very annoying mother.

"Hey!" she greeted and hugged the other two girls. "Please tell me you're in my class today, I'm way too tired to be awake for two hours straight listening to some annoying and stupid teacher." A yawn came to her mouth, agreeing with her statement.

"Someone was up until too late last night, huh?" Ruby teased, poking her.

"Yes." Ivy replied without hesitation. "Organizing and decorating my agenda, you idiot" she stuck out her tongue to Ruby. "You know I get so nervous and anxious on the first day back."

"Oh, here I was thinking you were partying like a savage but nope, still just a nerd." Ruby laughed.

"Hey! There's nothing wrong about being a responsible student!" Belle snapped, making Ruby laughed even harder.

Emma looked at her friends and shook her head, trying to figure out what she had done to deserve such crazy, adorable idiots. Emma had never been a social person, she used to have only one or two friends that knew her so well and she knew she could trust, and she tried to avoid any kind of social activities that didn't involve, at least, one of them. Ever since she was little, making friends was such a big deal to her, she couldn't seem able to open up to people, to fully trust them, so she just described herself as a lone wolf and dealt with it.

That was also one of the reasons she decided to move to Maine, she knew she would be terrified of befriending new people, that she probably wouldn't be able to and would end up spending her school year sitting alone in a corner of the room. But everything changed when those girls came into her life, making her believe she actually had some social skills left buried somewhere deep down her soul.

"We're going to be late." Belle said once more, always the responsible one. "Where do you guys have class now?" all the girls checked their phones and spoke up a moment later.

"Linguistics, class 1-02M" Ruby was the first one.

"Great, I'm not alone." Belle jumped up and down, being a shy girl herself and not wanting to spend two hours by her own.

"Oh, Linguistics, class 2-10M" Emma said, her voice sad since she was not with her best friends.

"Same!" Ivy said relieved. Emma gave her a smile as the brunette intertwined their arms. "What time is it again?" she asked, her path slow.

"8:03" Ruby replied. "So we're good because teachers are always late."

The four of them entered their building and walked upstairs, Ivy and Emma saying their goodbyes before facing another flight of stairs. Their smiles disappeared as soon as they saw the door of their classroom closed, the teacher already inside. _Shit, late on the first day,_ is all Emma could think on that moment as her friend dragged her to the backdoor, thinking it was safer to enter that way so they wouldn't have to cross the whole room.

Ivy slowly opened the door and Emma decided to stare at the ground until they reached their seats in the last row. The teacher, a woman, judging by her voice, was already explaining what the year was going to be about and how she was going to grade their assignments and final exam; but Emma was too busy searching for a piece of paper in her messy bag.

"It's just the first day, how can you have your bag full of stuff already?" Ivy asked with a quiet laugh.

"Guess that's my secret talent." The blonde girl replied.

"And if there's something I'm not going to tolerate, that's unpunctuality. The classes start at 8am sharp, if you're not here by then, you might as well go back to sleep. Am I clear?" all the students chanted a _yes ma'am_ as a reply to the teacher's question. "Hope that's true. And, to the ladies on the back, try setting the alarm ten minutes earlier next time."

Emma finally raised her head, realizing the teacher was talking to her and Ivy, and that's when she saw her. She placed her hands on the table, looking for something to hold on to, fearing she would fall to the ground in any moment. It was her, Emma was as sure as it could be that it was her. She didn't look as sad as last night, and she was obviously not wearing the same clothes, her black long skirt and dark green shirt replaced by a sexy (yet not slutty) red dress and matching red lipstick. Emma held her breath as realization hit her, trying to absorb way too much information in just two seconds. The woman in front of her was her teacher, her linguistics teacher. The woman in front of her was also the woman she had been flirting with all night. She had been flirting with her teacher; a teacher that was supposed to give her a grade at the end of the semester; a teacher she was supposed to see four hours a week for the next six months.

Those deep brown eyes locked with her green ones, and Emma could see as her teacher's jaw dropped a few centimetres, realization hitting her as hard as it hit Emma. The rest of the students were obviously aware of the awkward silence that had filled the room, not really knowing the reason, and it was just when one of them coughed, that the black haired woman shook her head and continued talking, suddenly acting as if nothing had happened, as if she hadn't just seen the gorgeous woman that randomly talked to her in a small bar last night, the woman she wasn't able to get out of her mind.

"Oh, crap." Emma whispered.


	4. 04 - Broken

If Regina Mills had to describe herself using one word, she would most likely choose "strong". Not brave, nor fierce, nor badass. Just strong. Because Regina was, indeed, a very strong woman. Ever since she was young she had learn to keep her emotions buried deep inside her soul, remaining a mystery for the rest of the world, who had no idea what the lady had gone through in her life.

She had learnt to deal with all of her problems in a quiet way, never feeling the need to cry them out or seek advice or comfort in others; that was not the way she worked. She didn't believe in emotional breakdowns or motivational speeches, claiming every person should be able to deal with their own monsters one way or another, never thinking she would find herself all curled up in a corner of her bathroom, crying until she ran out of tears.

She tried to remember the last time she felt that way, beaten, broken, defeated, and it surprised her to follow her feelings until another dark night many years ago. She remembered it as if it happened yesterday: how she came home to find her mother crying in the living room, hugging one of her many friends Regina didn't even know the name of; or how she looked at her, red, puffy eyes telling her all the words her mouth was not able to produce because of a loud sobbing; or how Regina herself had started crying, wrapping her arms against her mother's neck, pressing her head against the woman's shoulder.

It was the night Regina received the hardest news she ever had to deal with. It was the night she learnt her father had passed away due to a heart attack. She had reacted in the same way she was reacting now: curled up in a corner, crying in the dark, avoiding any kind of human contact. For the first time in her eighteen years of existence, Regina Mills had been overcome by her emotions; she had felt lost, as if she was in the middle of the ocean, rowing to no direction in particular, losing all hope of ever reaching a safe land.

Regina was not a teenager anymore, but she was still earning that no matter how fast you run, your problems will always end up catching you, no matter how deep down you bury them, your emotions will always find the way out, they will always find the way to break you, just as it was happening that night.

The woman took a glimpse at her reflection in the mirror, her image distorted as an effect of her many tears, still she managed to inspect her ruined makeup, mascara all over her cheeks and the red lipstick long gone.

 _Alcohol,_ she thought; she needed alcohol, the more the better.

Regina looked around her almost empty apartment, realizing she hadn't had time to buy herself some whiskey, and she mentally slapped herself for not even having some wine. She should have known better, she should have bought any kind of alcoholic beverage as soon as she moved in, but she had too much in her mind at the time.

She let out a sigh as she roughly dried her tears with the back of her hands. She was not at all in the mood to stand the presence of anyone, and less the presence of a bunch of sweaty, drunk people. But her heart was asking for alcohol, and so she decided to make the effort and strip out of her sweatpants and hoodie, replacing them with back high heels, a long black shirt and a dark green buttoned shirt. She looked at her reflection once again; _makeup,_ she thought, she needed to find a way of erasing any trace of tears left in her face.

Regina let out a sigh before entering the bar, trying to compose herself and to not seem as desperate for alcohol as she actually was. She hated bars, she would rather get drunk on her own and cry, cry as much as she needed with no witnesses in the room. But if it came down to crying alone or drinking, she had it very clear that the answer was always whiskey.

She confidently entered the local, walking towards the counter without even taking a look at the room, she didn't have the time to be interested in the interior design of the pub, she only wanted her drink. She sat in one of the stools and ordered a glass of the better scotch she could get, confidence never leaving her eyes, not even when the barista winked at her while placing a questionably clean glass on the counter, _ugh._

"A gorgeous girl on her own is either celebrating or drowning her pains in alcohol. So, which one is it?" Regina closed her eyes for a brief moment and took a sip of her drink. Great, now someone was trying to flirt; crying in the bathroom suddenly seemed a way better idea than alcohol.

"Smooth." She replied without even looking at the girl next to her. She also made sure to use a cod tone, trying to let the woman clear she was only interested in drinking.

"Not my best move, I must agree." The woman chuckled and Regina decided she had already had enough. She moved her head, staring deep down into a couple of shining green eyes that were accompanied by a huge smile. The features of the blonde girl were soft, delicate, beautiful. Regina thought she seemed a few years younger than herself but she also knew that wouldn't have stopped her from joining in her flirting game if she had found herself in a good mood. But she wasn't, too bad for the blondie.

"Are you done flirting?" she scoffed. "Because I'm going through some problems right now and I would like to finish my drink alone." she made sure her voice sounded colder than the last time, rude even.

"Okay," the blonde girl raised her hands as a sign of defeat. "I just thought you would like some company. No one really enjoys drinking alone, right?" _I do,_ Regina thought as the woman gave her another huge, warm smile and grabbed a drink that was now in front of her. She turned around, ready to go back to wherever she had come from.

"Wait." Regina's mouth worked faster than her brain. "Sit down." She found herself saying, not being sure of why she had done it.

Of course the blonde was pretty, and of course Regina felt lonelier that night, but her brain was telling her the night would not end with the woman naked on her bed, she was a bit more refined than that. Then, why did she asked the girl to sit down and why was she ready to buy her a drink? Maybe, Regina thought, she didn't want to feel that lonely, maybe she wanted to give into the illusion of someone caring enough to listen to her, maybe… her brain was not able to process it, not even after several minutes of pleasant and random conversation with the stranger, and maybe, she thought, maybe she would never figure out why she had acted so impulsive that night, when her initial purpose was to isolate herself in her personal bubble, a bubble that was going to be torn apart by a blonde tornado; but neither of the women knew that part yet.


	5. 05 - Oh, crap

The minutes passed slowly on Emma's clock, even slower than usual. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem able of focusing on taking notes, notes she would eventually need if she wanted to pass her final exam but, how was she supposed to pay proper attention when the woman she wanted to kiss last night was the one teaching? She couldn't; all she could do was stare at the woman, who would glance at her from time to time as if she was trying to make sure Emma was still there, that she was real and not a product of her imagination; and pray, Emma was praying for the woman not to remember her because, if she did, she would most probably be screwed for the rest of the semester.

"Okay, just one last thing and I'll let you go, I promise." The teacher said, making everyone smile; everyone but Emma, who could see her talking but did not comprehend the words that were leaving her mouth. "I like to learn my students' names so I'm going to read the list they gave me and you just raise your hand when you hear your name, that way I can get to know you." She smiled before grabbing some papers from her desk.

Emma buried her head in her hands, trying to think straight for a moment, not that her brain was willing to cooperate. She told herself once, twice and even fifty times that what happened the night before was not her fault. Also, to be honest, nothing happened, right? They were just two women having a drink and having a conversation, not even that, it was more of small talk. Her teacher would understand that, she had to, it was her fault as much as Emma's that neither of them asked the other's age or job.

"Ehm… Swan, Emma." She read and raised her head, waiting for the name's owner to show her her presence.

"Emma." Ivy punched her shoulder, trying to bring her back to Earth from that little bubble of stress and panic she had just created in her head. "She just called you".

Emma shook her head and raised her right arm. "Here". She said, a little louder than she intended.

And she regretted almost instantly, when those deep brown eyes looked straight into hers once again. Emma knew she would not be able to survive the semester, not with Ms Mills' eyes and smiles hunting her that way. For a moment, she lost herself in those chocolate oceans, wondering why was she the only one acting under the spell of her teacher's beauty; why was everyone else acting like nothing was happening when an actual top model was attempting to make them learn something? Why only her?

Eventually, sooner than Emma had wished, those eyes looked away, back to the papers, back to calling other names. And Emma mentally slapped herself, she slapped herself because she should have been paying attention, because she wanted to hear her teacher pronouncing her name, because she needed to know if that spell was only in her sleepy and confused head or if she was actually attracted to that woman; to her teacher.

"So, that was all. I will see some of you guys tomorrow." She smiled once again, but Emma didn't see it; she was way too busy placing her blank paper sheets back into her folder and quickly throwing it into her bag, trying to run towards the door.

"Ivy…" she whispered angrily, discovering that her friend didn't hurry as much as she did. And that's when she made the mistake of looking back to the front of the class, where her teacher was staring back at her.

Regina Mills took a deep breath and started making her way to the back of the class, trying to avoid the students that were rushing outside, where a calmed Ivy was placing her folder and pencil case back into her purple bag. Next to her, a not so calmed Emma looked like she was going to pass out at any moment, paler than usual, heavy breath, unable to remain still for two seconds in a row.

Regina allowed herself to take a moment to look at her or, well, to stare. Yes, she was indeed right, that was the woman she had spent last night with, as beautiful as the brunette recalled her. She looked great in her simple yet charming clothes, like she was in her element, and Regina knew that by the way the blonde girl was pulling the ends of her red leather jacket while looking at her. Oh, crap, she had caught her staring.

"Miss Swan, a word?" she finally said, trying to sound calm when she knew she had a tornado inside of her.

"Ehm… I… we… ah." Emma seemed unable to form a coherent sentence as she eyed her friend in need of help.

"We're actually late for class, Ms Mills." Ivy spoke up, softly grabbing Emma by her arm and shaking her a little, trying to wake her up from a dream, a way too real dream. "It's our first day and we don't really want to be late, sorry." She added, as polite as she could sound.

"Sure, sure." Regina shook her head. "I want to talk to you, though, so please come to my office as soon as possible." She smiled before adding "And make sure to be on time on my next class." She tried to make her voice sound threatening, but the smile that still remained on her face didn't help her much.

"Of course, Ms Mills." Ivy responded while she pulled Emma towards the door, confused about her friend's behaviour. She knew the blondie was not the most open and extroverted girl in campus, but she certainly didn't have a problem talking to teachers. Then, why couldn't she even seem to be able to think that morning.

[…]

"Are you serious?" Ruby yelled. "Are you sure about that?"

The four girls were sitting in one of the benches near the campus' lake, enjoying the warn weather, thankful for their free hours that allowed them to take a breath and eat a snack in order to survive the rest of the day. The place was empty, maybe because the lake was located at the furthest end of the campus, far from the buildings, and students were too busy or lazy to walk all the way down there, but the view was totally worth it.

The ducks seemed to be celebrating that morning, welcoming the new and old students and praying for some food coming their way. Their joyous squawk brought a feeling of peace to Emma for some reason, who had come to know the habits of those animals over the year, and was able to recognize some of them, the ones she had named with the help of her friends. There was something magical and calming about that place, as if everything was well in there, as if all her problems were gone.

"Emma!" Ruby snapped her out of her daydreams and brought her back to the real world, where her problems were unfortunately still existing.

"Yes, Ruby, yes, I am sure. I mean, that's not a face you forget, okay?" she rested her head in her arms, trying to find some shelter from the waterfall of questions that was coming her way. "I'm so screwed, guys. She said she wanted to talk to me" Emma sighed. "What does she want? What do I do?"

"Maybe she wants to trade sex for good grades." Ruby joked, trying to ease the awkwardness of the situation, but she suddenly shut up when Belle looked at her in anger. "Sorry." She whispered.

"Look, I think she just wants to clear things, like you. I say give it a try, just talk about it like the two adult, responsible women that you are." Belle gave her a kind smile, trying to comfort her.

Emma nodded, trying not to freak out. "I mean, it can't get any worse, right?"


	6. 06 - The office

Regina's office was peaceful, clean, organized; every single item placed in its location, not even one inch to the right or the left. It was, just like herself, professional. The space was not too wide, but it was big enough for it to be divided in two smaller areas; one of them was formed by a large desk that held her computer and many other papers and stationery, everything placed in an exact order that gave it harmony. The second area was, as she called it, the "tea" space; it was nothing more than a small sofa and a tiny table where the brunette used to enjoy the reading of a good book while taking sips of her coffee or tea whenever she had some free time. To put it in short, Regina's office was a material projection of her inner self. But not that morning.

Regina's office that morning could have been described as a total mess. The teacher had spent hours looking for some papers, moving and misplacing all of the other sheets on her desk, white squares flooding the space: sofa, table, desk… everything. She didn't completely know why, but she wasn't able to function normally that morning. She didn't feel like reading, and she even forgot her coffee date with her sister, and Regina Mills never forgot any of her appointments. But that morning her body and mind couldn't do anything but walking up and down her office and wishing that a certain blonde girl would come through that door so she could sort things out with her.

Just as she started wondering if asking her student to come into her office had been a good idea for the hundredth time, a knock on the door startled her, freezing her and taking away her voice. _What the hell, Regina? Act normal!_ She passed her hands through her hair and the red fabric of her dress before navigating to her desk and grabbing some papers: _act busy, act professional,_ she thought.

"Come in!" her voice was a little weaker than she would have liked it to be but, apparently, it was loud enough for the person behind the door to hear it.

Regina looked expectantly at the door, waiting for the beautiful features of Emma Swan to appear, but her hopes disappeared as soon as she spotted the traces of curly red hair.

"Hey" the redhead walked inside the room and spoke with a flawless British accent. "You forgot our date, I was worried about you." Actually, everything about her was flawless, piercing blue eyes, red hair, thin lips; she was, indeed, gorgeous.

"Zelena!" Regina shook her head while her sister stared at her, waiting for an answer. "I… uhm, I'm so sorry, I totally forgot, I had a lot of paperwork and couldn't make it"

"Paperwork? It's the first day!" her sister wasn't pleased with that excuse, always able to see through Regina, as if she was made of glass instead of flesh and bone. "What's going on? What's worrying you?" Regina didn't reply, staring at her table instead. "Were you okay last night? You know you can stay at my place for a couple of days more if you want to, I told you."

Regina had been living with her sister for a month now in the, as she called it, coffin with wooden walls. It was a huge house with two floors connected by a large stairway which the brunette had come to hate with all her heart since she spent her days going up and down. She would never admit it to her sister, but she actually missed living with her even if it had just been one night. She wondered how the redhead did it, how she managed to live alone in that house without the walls falling on her, loneliness and depression knocking them down. She had felt all of that in just three hours, while her sister seemed happy after four years of living on her own.

"No, I'm fine, my apartment's great and I just watched a film and went to bed; I was fine." Regina tried to fool the redhead with her best smile but, yet again, that was not going to work.

"Sure. So you're telling me you didn't overthink, had a breakdown and get seriously drunk, right?" Zelena showed a sarcastic smile on her face, but her voice showed real concern about her little sister. They had never been best friends forever since their relationship had been complicated right from the start. Both the ginger woman and the brunette one had strong personalities, independent, powerful and in control, and that's why they often ended up arguing for hours about the most stupid little thing. But if there was something they both surely knew is that they were family and, no matter how much they argued or how badly they'd want to punch each other's faces, they would always be there for each other when one of them fell. And Zelena knew Regina had fallen.

The brunette let out a sigh before she started talking. "I'm not good alone with my feelings and thoughts, they are stronger than me and they break me no matter how hard I fight them. So yes… yeah, I had a breakdown, a really big one indeed; and yes, I went out for a drink that turned into a couple of them, but that's all." Of course that was not all and, as much as she trusted her sister, she would never tell her how one of her students spent the night flirting with her.

"You're staying at my place tonight and I'm not taking a no for an answer, do you hear me?" the redhead was already grabbing her purse from the little table she had left it at, trying to walk out of the office as quick as possible so her sister would not get a chance to argue. "See you tonight" she chanted in her melodic British accent.

Regina opened her mouth to reply that she didn't need a babysitter, that she would be okay that night; but it was too late since her sister had rushed out of the room in just a couple of seconds, like magically disappearing.

The teacher let out another sigh and went back to properly placing her papers, trying to focus on something other than a certain blonde that was supposed to show up on her door at any moment. It had passed less than two minutes when someone knocked on her door, making her jump. She didn't even have time to think on what to say or how to act, since the other person didn't wait for her to tell them to come in; she only had time to put on her brightest smile.

But her smile fade away as soon as the ginger woman showed her head through the door once more.

"Oh, it's you." It's all Regina managed to say as she came back to her papers once again.

"Glad to see you, too." She replied, faking to be hurt. "Just wanted to ask you to go to the shop after work because I'm going to be so busy today and I won't have time and I don't have any food left. I will cook, I promise. I love you, bye!" she spoke as fast as she could, not even breathing so Regina couldn't interrupt her and refuse. As soon as she was done, she closed the door once more and walked away as fast as possible.

The brunette shook her head, she loved her sister too much to be mad at her, even if the last thing she wanted after her first day back to work was driving to the tiny Storybrooke supermarket and spending more than half an hour shopping while talking to the extremely nice and social local neighbours.

A couple of seconds after Zelena left, there was another knock on the door. Regina rolled her eyes and didn't even bothered to turn around while she yelled an angry "What now?!"

"You told me to come by earlier this morning." That was not a British accent. That was not her sister.

When she turned around she found a confused Emma, her hands intertwined and a weak smile on her face; the poor girl didn't expect such a hard start of their conversation and she didn't even know what she was supposed to do at the moment.

"Yes, I did. Please, come in, sit down." Regina blinked a couple of times before responding, embarrassed by the fact that she had just yelled at the girl she was trying to have a civilized conversation with. "I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else, didn't mean to sound rude." Regina smiled and Emma felt how a warm feeling travelled through her body. She thought that, no matter how sad, stressed or angry she was, that smile could always make her better and she would for sure love to see it daily; better yet, she would love to be the reason behind that smile.

She shook her head, what was she thinking? She had come there to clear things off with her teacher so they could have a normal student-teacher relationship; no, not a relationship. Emma just wanted to be able to sit at the back of the class, take her notes, lay down for the rest of the semester, pass her exam and never have to worry about any of this anymore. But did she? Did she really want to pass her exam and not be able to watch that woman again? No, it was crazy, they didn't even know each other, why was it always so hard for her to think around her teacher? Why did her mind always come back to the same stupid thoughts? She was her teacher, for love's sake!

"Emma?" the blonde girl blinked and focused her green eyes on the woman in front of her, she had just zoomed out and had no idea of what she had just told her. "Are you okay?"

"Yes." She said with a raspy voice, coughing after speaking to clear it out. "Yes." She repeated. "So, did you want to talk to me?"

As soon as Regina stared into those emerald green eyes, the speech she had rehearsed time after time in her mind got erased from her brain and she was suddenly unable to form a coherent sentence.

"I… yes, I mean… we…"

"We should forget about what happened at the bar." Emma suddenly said, wanting to get out of that office as soon as possible, fearing she would stay there, trapped in the spell of those brown eyes forever. "You clearly didn't know I was your student and I for sure didn't know you were my teacher or else I wouldn't have tried to flirt with you. I'm really sorry, and I just hope we can leave that night behind us, act like it never happened, so we can be normal around each other in class." Emma sighed, but she wasn't done talking yet. "Look, my friends dared me to flirt with the first woman that walked through the door, and it happened to be you. I'm sorry I did it and I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable with my actions, it was never my intention. For what is worth it, I loved talking to you but that's all. Now I just want to pass my final exam, I really don't want any kind of trouble with you." The girl closed her eyes, as if she was waiting to be punched or slapped, although neither of those happened.

"I also liked talking to you. I was having a bad moment and you helped me, so thank you." Regina spoke after a few seconds of silence. "But yes, I'm also willing to forget what happened and treat you like any other of my students. You won't have any problem with me, you have my word."

"So, we're good?" Emma showed a hopeful smile, kind of childish even.

"We're good." Regina replied. "That night never happened." She winked at the blonde, a gesture that was not supposed to come out as flirtatious as it actually did.

"Never." The student showed a genuine smile this time, she was relieved and happy that they were able to solve it out.

But, of course, both of them knew they were not going to forget that night any time soon; I mean, how could they? They were supposed to stay in the same classroom for two hours two days a week and, even if they tried, the memories rushed to their brains as soon as they took a glimpse of each other.


	7. 07 Empty drinks and broken plans

"I don't think I can do this." Emma mumbled while resting her forehead in the counter, right in front of her untouched drink. It had been only two weeks since the incident in that very same bar, two weeks she had had to deal with Regina Mills, also known as a goddess, standing right in front of her eyes for two hours on Mondays and Wednesdays, walking around the class while rocking the body life gave her, speaking about complicated concepts with her soft voice that, for some reason, reminded Emma of a feline, maybe a panther or a white tiger, something as sophisticated as the lady herself, elegant and hypnotic. She couldn't do it, she just couldn't. She always told herself she would take notes, ignore those red lips talking to her because, no, she wasn't talking to her, she was talking to the class because she was her teacher just as she was the teacher of the other one hundred students in that classroom; _gosh, Swan, keep it together!_

But the young girl wasn't able to help it, she just couldn't ignore her, or the feelings a simple look of her deep chocolate eyes raised up her spine and to her cheeks, where a red (almost purple) blush would show up every time she smiled at her. Because she did smile, she always did. Every time Emma walked through the doors, the brunette woman would always manage to catch her eye in the middle of that loud crowd of students, and she then would show the whitest and most perfect smile the girl had ever seen. Oh, that smile, Emma felt like she could melt every time Regina Mills smiled, every time she smiled _to her._ The teacher also looked at her often, not even trying to hide her looks anymore; because she had tried.

At first, the woman would look at the blondie when she was too busy writing in her notebook, trying to solve one of the exercises she had asked her students to complete. But then those glimpses of golden hair were not enough and she wouldn't be able to stop herself from peeking while following the lesson, teaching always her first priority, looking at Emma and watching her blush a close second one. Because she saw how her student turned as red as a tomato every time she as much as looked at her, let's not talk about when she smiled, because the teacher could tell Emma's knees failed to properly hold her body when she smiled at her.

Every single cell and neuron in her body and brain were telling her that was not okay, she couldn't play with Emma's feelings like that, less even when she knew how her only presence affected the blonde one, but she was enjoying it. And she wasn't going to stop anytime soon.

Ruby placed a hand in the blonde's shoulder, a failed attempt of cheering her up. All Emma did was grunt, but she didn't even move.

"You know you can stay home if you want to, I'll take notes for you." Ivy suggested with a weak smile the blonde hair could not see. "I mean, you're using my notes already." She added in a whisper.

"Going to class is actually a 20% of the final grade, you can't just stop going." Belle added, earning herself a look full of hate from Ruby. "I mean, you could, but you would need a perfect exam if you're hoping for a high grade." She added, trying to make it better but only receiving another harsh look from the tall brunette.

"Don't listen to her, you can just stop attending class if you want to, we all will help you study and you will ice the final exam, okay?" Ruby said, getting a nod from Ivy as a sign of support and a pleading look from Belle, who always wanted to follow the rules and attend class.

"Mhm." Emma finally moved her head, only to lay it down in the counter once more, this time looking at her friends. "Belle's right. We all know I'm capable of aiming for good grades but I'm no genius, I need that 20% so the offer's out of the table." She sighed before finally getting her head up the counter and grabbing her drink. "I mean, I'm old enough to deal with my problems, I just need to find the way, right?" Her three friends nodded in agreement, smiles plastered in their faces, maybe a little too happy for Emma's situation.

They spent a few minutes in silence, sipping from their drinks, not really knowing what to say to make Emma feel better. It was indeed a complicated situation, a first for all of them for that matter. Because, yes, of course the three girls have had crushes on their teachers before; they would giggle and draw hearts in their notebooks, they would smile in the hallways and gossip with their friends, trying to figure out if the maths teacher had a girlfriend or a wife. But, haven't we all? Those were innocent crushes, the ones where you find your teacher attractive but you tell yourself he's way out of reach so everything falls back and stays as an impossible dream, a fantasy you know you'll never fulfil, mostly because your teacher doesn't even know you exist. But this time was different, of course the teacher knew about Emma, and she seemed to be ready to have an affair, or a relationship for that matter, for the way she looked at Emma. Because they had seen it. At first they would tell her everything was in her head, that the teacher wasn't even looking at her despite what she may have thought she saw; but then they saw it too: the looks, the smiles, the teacher enjoying that little game of theirs… and that's what had made them so confused, so helpless and useless in their friend's cause.

"By the way, girls." Ivy spoke up, catching everyone's attention. "I know we had plans to watch the Blood Moon thingy together but I can't go." She took a quick breath and kept on talking before the other girls could interrupt her. "My sister's birthday is coming up and mother decided to throw a party for her that night, so she can celebrate the birthday of her favourite daughter with a huge red moon as her background." She sighed as she took one last sip from her now empty glass. Anastasia was Ivy's little sister and their mother's favourite, even if Ivy was the chid every parent could have desired.

"Actually… I have to pass too." Ruby said with a grin. "Granny's been calling me for days now and she swore if I'm not there to help her with the restaurant that night, she's going to stop paying my university fees, and I am so not going to spend the rest of my days being a waitress in that place." She added as fast as she could, trying to validate her point with as many arguments as she could find.

"And then there were two." Emma said raising her glass to touch Belle's, but the petite brunette didn't join her. "…or one." She added when she saw her face.

"I'm sorry, I really am, but I have lots of projects coming up and I'm as stressed as it can be. It's being really hard to get a decent night of seep and, come on, it's just a moon eclipse, you can google those and watch the pictures." Emma raised one of her eyebrows; she was okay with her friends bailing out on her, but she was not dumb enough to believe that Belle, the girl who was totally amazed by astronomy, was ditching her and a giant red rock in the space to get a few more hours of sleep.

"If you don't want to come, just say it, you don't need to make something up." Emma said, taking a sip from her cup. "It's okay, I mean it. I'm still watching that bloody moon from our university building's rooftop, though, I read is one of those things that won't ever happen again for a long while so I'm not missing it for the world." She added before finishing her drink.


	8. 08 Breath-taking, isn't it?

Like the rain. That's how the wind between the trees sounded that night. Leaves caressing each other in a complicated yet perfect orchestra that made her think of summer rains, calming, comforting. The crickets seemed to love that music too, since they sung with everything they had, a loud noise involving her body. It was soft and harmonious, and it brought a smile to her face as she was reminded of old summer memories with her family, back when she was little and all her worries did not exist. She used to be happy, she thought, she used to smile all the time, lighting up the room, bringing joy to everyone around her, oh how things had changed.

 _If eleven year old me could only know about all my problems..._ she thought as she walked pass the science building. The darkness was scary, even more at one in the morning, but Emma Swan wasn't one to be easily afraid, not as long as she had a goal fixated in her mind. And she did. She said she was going to observe the red moon from their building's rooftop and that's what she was going to do.

The humanities building was the highest one, with five floors filled with classrooms, a library and a computer room in addition to several offices and even a coffee room for the professors. The blonde girl didn't even know what half the rooms were used for, since it looked like they always had class in the same three ones, but she didn't care at the time, she only cared about being as close to the moon as she could.

"The door's going to be locked, how are you going to get in?" Belle had asked that evening before leaving the apartment.

"It won't. Do you think they lock the doors? Come on, they're too lazy and careless to do so." She had replied without second guessing.

"Plus, who would be willing to steal books?" Ruby asked, making clear she was on Emma's side on this one. "Besides you, of course" she added looking at the petite brunette with a huge smile.

The blonde girl placed her hand in the doorknob and pushed, not getting surprised when the door opened before her. _Told ya,_ she thought as she chuckled, trying to control her heartbeat; it seemed like her organ would get out of her chest at any moment. Emma had never been one for creating trouble, but in that moment she understood why some people liked to commit little felonies, she could feel the adrenaline rushing through her veins and damn, it felt great.

The building was in the most absolute darkness, so Emma grabbed her phone and pressed the little lantern emoji so she would be able to make her way to the stairs. She was not happy with this choice, but the elevator had been broken for two weeks and it didn't look like they were going to fix it any time soon, so Emma sighed as her foot was slowly placed in the first step; _five floors,_ she thought, _I'm not hitting the gym for the rest of the month, this is enough cardio for me_. One floor, and she was still breathing fine; three floors and she was tired; four floors and she couldn't even breathe; but when she reached the fifth floor, instead of giving up on life and siting down to take a breath, she felt her heart racing up, cold sweat running down her neck, back and hands. A light. She saw a light through the open door of the rooftop; there was someone there and she was going to get in so much trouble if she was caught breaking in at night.

 _Maybe the light is always on,_ she thought, not ready to give up on her mission, even less after getting upstairs.

The blonde girl turned her lantern off and walked the couple of steps that were in between the stairs and the door in complete silence, not even daring to breathe. She peered through the door and her heart skipped a beat. She tried to walk away, slowly and quietly, but her foot betrayed her, not being able to place it on the right step and making her roll downstairs, loudly, until her body finally landed on flat floor.

"Shit." She cried as she brought her hands to her right hip, where she had hit the ground.

"Who's there?" a voice yelled upstairs as she heard the door creek, getting opened. Emma knew in that moment she was so lost, there was nothing she could do now to avoid the encounter with the owner of that voice, as she was not in the ideal shape to run out of there. "Hello?" the voice sounded closer this time and Emma could feel her heart beating louder, and not precisely due to the fall.

A dark silhouette appeared upstairs moments later and the girl was ready for the Earth to swallow her. Darkness surrounded them both, but Emma still managed to observe the woman's shiny eyes as she peered through the darkness, trying to recognize the source of the noise. She could not see her properly, yet her mere presence managed to make the girl nervous, not knowing how to act or what to say.

"Is someone there?" she asked once more, her voice annoyed since she was not getting any answers.

"Yes..." Emma whispered as she prayed to all existing gods for her teacher not to send her to the dean's office with trespassing charges.

"Miss Swan? Is that you?" the woman squinted her eyes, trying to find her student in the darkness, and the girl helped her by waving her left hand in the air with a cute smile like the ones she used to show her mother when she was a child and the woman busted her in the middle of one of her many antics. "Oh my God! Emma, are you okay?" Regina tried to make her way through the darkness, which was everything but easy, since she was afraid of tripping and falling just like Emma did moments earlier.

"I'm fine, just a little bruised." The girl said after finally standing up and evaluating every part of her body. Nothing felt broken, but, gosh, it hurt. "Wait, I'm coming up". Emma palpated her way upstairs, walking slowly, one foot after the other, never letting go of the wall that was guiding her. Until she touched her. It was so dark Emma hadn't noticed Regina was closer than she expected her to be, so she ended up grabbing one of the teacher's arms. Instead of letting go, as her brain told her to, she just stood there, her hand in the woman's arm. Some inner voice was telling her that wasn't right, but her whole body felt the electricity her contact sent through the blonde's body and, somehow, it just felt like coming home.

To Emma's surprise, Miss Mills placed her free hand on top of hers, using the other one to guide them to the light, to the rooftop. Once they were outside, Emma could appreciate the simple yet magical space her teacher had pulled together. A couple of chairs, a plastic mini fridge that was currently being used to support a beer can, and a telescope. Her teacher had brought a freaking telescope to the rooftop.

Regina helped her student sit down on one of the chairs, never letting go of her hand, like she was actually glued to the blonde girl, knowing letting go would make her heart break, even if the girl was still sitting a couple inches next to her. She looked at her student under the rooftop light, her long blonde locks flew freely around her head, and her usually green eyes resembled now the colour of the honey. She was trying to look though in front of her teacher, but Regina knew her right hip still hurt a little every time she moved.

"What are you doing here? It's like one in the morning" the woman asked, instinctively holding her breath when Emma looked up at her.

"Well, I could ask you the same, Miss Mills" she replied with an amused grin that grew even wider as soon as her teacher rolled her eyes in response. Emma raised her head and stared at the huge red moon that was looking back at her. After a few moments of silence she pointed at it. "That. I came here for that".

"Ah, the Blood Moon. Breath-taking, isn't it?" Regina asked, her eyes getting lost in the sky.

"She sure is" Emma whispered, loud enough for the woman to hear and, to her surprise, she found out the blondie was looking at her while saying it.

The minutes passed without any of the women saying a word. The silence, however, did not feel weird or empty, they were happy to just be there, staring at the moon, feeling each other's presence, the silence speaking all the words they knew they couldn't say, the words they knew they mustn't say.

"May I ask you something?" Emma's emerald eyes found Regina's dark chocolate ones as the brunette nodded. "You don't have to reply if you don't want to but, the first time we met, you said you were going through a bad moment. What happened?" the teacher closed her eyes for a moment as she turned her head to the sky, as if she was getting lost in her own thoughts.

"What happened is..." she stopped, trying to figure out the perfect words to explain her feelings. "Life is messy, Emma. And people are even messier. They are dark, they are twisty and, sometimes, they love to hurt others." She sighed. "I don't really want to talk about this right now, if you don't mind. I was in a bad place, I was struggling, but I'm fighting day after day to get out of it and I'm currently able to smile, see?" she said, showing one of her widest and warmest smiles, the kind of smile she reserved only for Emma. "So that's something".

"May I ask you something now?" Regina asked out of the blue and waited until the blonde girl nodded. "If your friends wouldn't have dared you to talk to me, would you have done it anyways? Would you have approached me and lamely attempted to flirt?"

Emma laughed. "Oh, not in a million years! Nope." She shook her head with a big smile, almost choking in her laughter.

"Why, thank you, good to know I'm hideous". Regina laughed and Emma almost fell of her chair.

"What? No! No. That's not what I meant like, at all. I mean, just look at you, you're way out of my league, even if you weren't a teacher. Like, you're a goddess and I'm... me." Emma rambled, not even realizing what she was saying. "Oh my God, I'm sorry, Miss Mills, this is so inappropriate, I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay, Miss Swan." Regina laughed, amused by her student's dorkiness. "Although you're not so bad yourself."

Both of them laughed, getting carried away by the moment, until suddenly the laughter stopped and they were just there, looking into each other's eyes and getting completely lost, wishing that moment would never end. Neither one of them had let go of each other's hand, realizing about it just now since their contact seemed to burn their skin, both of them just waiting to be consumed by that fire. Their bodies started to lean closer, searching for something, searching for more, even if both of them knew they couldn't, that it just wasn't right.

"I should go home, it's getting late." Emma's raspy voice finally broke the silence. "See you in class, Miss Mills."

"See you, Miss Swan".


	9. 09 - Strangers, remember?

Late. Emma was late _again._ Regina Mills had already made more than clear that she hated unpunctuality more than anything on her first day and, ever since, the blonde girl had always tried to be on time, or even ten minutes earlier, since she wanted to avoid any kind of confrontation with her teacher at all costs, knowing she would not be able to resist those chocolate brown eyes that made her heartbeat reach seriously unhealthy levels. But there she was, the morning after her teacher caught her sneaking in the building to take a look at the red moon.

Getting rid of her red leather jacket, that was starting to be rather a burden than a comfortable layer against the heat the girl was starting to feel due to her rushed path, she allowed herself a few seconds to recover her breath, her feet slowing down for a moment before speeding up once more. The girl halted in front of the classroom door and took a look at her shiny phone screen. 8:04.

 _Maybe she's five minutes late, today._ She thought as she held the door open before her.

"Good morning, Miss Swan" she heard as she tried to make her entrance as quiet as possible.

"I'm sorry I'm late, my phone died and I-"

"Strike two, miss Swan" her teacher raised an eyebrow as she slowly proceeded to add a red cross next to Emma's name on the class list. "I guess you already know there won't be a third one".

"It won't happen again, Miss Mills" the blonde could feel the students' eyes on her as she walked to the last row of seats as fast as she could without looking rude or too embarrassed, even if she just wanted the Earth to open up and swallow her small being.

Emma didn't know why, but her teacher seemed tense, different ever since last night. Regina Mills had always been strict but gentle, a polite smile always plastered on her face. But that morning was different. There was no smile, her voice had no trace of gentleness and her eyes were darker than usual. Emma Swan started wondering the reason behind this sudden change, and couldn't help but thinking it was mostly her fault. She knew they didn't do anything wrong. Hell, they didn't do anything at all. Yet, why did her gut tell her otherwise?

"Body language". Regina started her class writing these words on the huge blackboard that presided the classroom. "It is amazing how much we can learn about a person, or how much someone can transmit using just their body language".

The teacher opened a PowerPoint presentation with several pictures of politics and actors, letting the class say out loud what the people in those pictures transmitted them, whether they were tense, happy, forcing a smile for the cameras… Emma looked at the pictures with determination, but she wasn't brave enough to raise her hand and share her thoughts with the rest of her classmates. For her, those people were just memories of past actions, puppets of the paparazzi, the cameras; she didn't care about them or their body language, she just wanted the class to go by as quick as possible so she could avoid Miss Mills for the rest of the week.

"Okay, class" Regina glanced at her students as she intertwined her arms, almost holding herself. "I want you all to pair up-" the students started sending looks to their friends, all of them already knowing who their teammate was going to be "-with someone you've never talked to" the whispers faded as the students looked confused at their teacher.

"I know most of you already know each other, but for this experiment to work, I need you all to choose someone you know nothing about, someone you haven't talked to yet, a stranger. Come on!"

A confused chaos of chars being pulled and students walking around the class, yelling for someone to be their teammate overwhelmed Emma. She was a stranger for everyone, and everyone was a stranger for her and yet, somehow, she still managed to be invisible for the rest of the class since, when the noises faded away, everyone was paired up but her.

"Miss Swan, you're with me" when Emma turned around, she found her teacher looking at her with a smile, a genuine smile. She shook her head and walked towards the brunette as a voice inside her mind told her to run away from there.

"Okay, class, the experiment is very easy; we're all going to look right into the eyes of our partner for one minute and then we are going to share what we felt and what we thought we learnt from that person. Understood?" everyone nodded or replied with a soft 'yes' as Regina set a timer on her own phone, instructing everyone to place themselves in front of their partners. "Okay, her we go".

As soon as Emma looked into Regina's deep brown eyes, she felt shivers down her spine. She couldn't do it, she knew she couldn't just stand there for a minute, placing her green eyes on her teacher's eyes just as those chocolate pits stared back at her, threatening to swallow her whole. In a vague attempt to distract herself from that situation, since looking away was not an option at the time, she decided some small talk could be a fine solution.

"So, are we allowed to talk while we look at each other or is this supposed to happen in silence?" she asked, not really expecting a response from the tall brunette.

"We're supposed to be silence, since we are not supposed to learn anything about our partner. Strangers, remember?" she replied, narrowing her eyes as she spoke.

"Yes, but, we are not really strangers, are we? I mean, I know you from your classes and from the bar and from last night" Emma was not going to give up; silence was not an option for her.

"I thought we were not supposed to talk about that" Regina whispered, clearly mad about the whole situation.

"I know, I was just stating facts."

"Okay, Miss Swan" Regina spoke after a couple of seconds "What do you want to talk about?" she sighed "Not the bar." She added.

"Small conversation, I don't know. Maybe… where are you from?" Emma's eyelashes moved faster than she wanted them to, and Regina noticed.

"Storybrooke, born and raised."

"Weird, I've been here for a couple of years now and I've never seen you around before. Not in town, not at campus." Emma didn't know what was going on with her, why suddenly, she was questioning her teacher, the same one she usually didn't know how to act around of.

"Well, it's a big campus, and a much bigger town too." Regina replied. "But, if you want to know, I moved for a few years to the city for personal reasons and came back right before this academic year started"

"Why?" Emma asked, her mouth and her brain not working together anymore.

"Why did I leave or why did I come back?" Regina rose one of her eyebrows, tilting her head a little to the right.

"Why did you come back? I mean, this town isn't that big, I bet the city was nicer."

Regina's eyes went darker for just a second, as if she was remembering some painful memory she was not ready to let go of. Then, she just smiled wide open.

"I could ask you the same thing. A smart girl like you probably had a lot of options when it comes to universities. Why choosing Storybrooke then?"

"I liked it here, I felt like I needed to start over, and this just seemed like the right place". Emma rose one of her eyebrows too. "Now please don't avoid my questions".

"Well, I needed to start over, too. I needed to get away from some things at the city and going back to my roots just felt right."

Just as Emma was about to reply with yet another question, the teacher's phone started beeping, indicating the minute has finished already and everyone should get back to their seats.

"I would like to know how you feel after this exercise. Do you think you know your partners better than you did before? What were your impressions, feelings?" the whole class remained silent, nobody daring to raise their hand, not sure of what to say.

"Okay, I see you all have a lot to say" all the students laughed at the joke, but nobody replied. "Well, in that case, I'll go first". Regina placed her gaze on Emma for a moment before she spoke again. "I was paired up with Miss Swan and I think I now know more about her. I could see, through her eyes and, Miss Swan, correct me if I'm wrong; I could see a shy girl who cares deeply about her friends, whom she considers family. I could see a wandering soul who hasn't yet found a place to call home. And I could see, above all, a determined woman who knows exactly what she wants and doesn't stop until she gets it. Did I guess something?" Regina directed her deep brown eyes once more to Emma's green ones and waited for an answer.

The blonde woman couldn't think straight right in that moment. How did that woman manage to learn her whole personality just with two conversations and one minute of staring into her eyes? She, herself, had also built some personality traits of her teacher, but she was sure nothing would be as accurate as the description she had just made of her student.

"That was… right" she managed to articulate, almost in a whisper.

"Good. Want to share what you thought of me with the class?" Regina asked with a big smile on her face.

Emma thought about it for a second. She really wanted to share her conclusions with Miss Mills, although she wasn't sure she wanted the rest of the students to be present while she did so, not knowing how her teacher or her classmates themselves would react.

"I would rather not, if possible" she said with a weak smile, hoping her teacher wouldn't think any less of her because of it.

"Okay. So, anyone wants to go next?"

 **I know this chapter sucks oml, I don't really know why but it's been so hard to write it, I've been trying to deal with it for months and even now, I'm not happy with the results. I really wanted to include this idea, since my teacher also made us do this little experiment in class and it was seriously amazing, I was paired up with this really nice girl and she said some really sweet stuff about me afterwards so I have good memories of it. I thought it could be sweet and interesting for the story but I don't know what happened, words just seemed not to be able to come to my mind and walk to the paper.**

 **For real, I'm so sorry. I hope it won't take me this long to update again and I hope the next chapter will be worth of your time since this one, clearly, is not.**


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